


Marked

by KagsTsukftw



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Blood and Violence, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Inspired by Doctor Who, M/M, Soul Bond, Sugawara Koushi is a Little Shit, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:41:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28314723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KagsTsukftw/pseuds/KagsTsukftw
Summary: This fic was inspired by Doctor Who...seriously. You've been warnedHis smile widened and both monsters became aware of him. They betrayed instinctual concern in their amber and azure depths, the dragons uncoiling from their slumber at the sense of an unknown challenge, a protective awareness, a sense of unease. Sugawara savored it, they should be worried. The shadow king and the moonlight prince had no idea what was coming.
Relationships: Kageyama Tobio/Sugawara Koushi, Kageyama Tobio/Sugawara Koushi/Tsukishima Kei, Kageyama Tobio/Tsukishima Kei, Sugawara Koushi/Tsukishima Kei
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Christmas!
> 
> This fic has NOTHING to do with Christmas. Except that I love Doctor Who's Christmas special which is usually scary not fluffy, so I was inspired.  
> Hope you enjoy. Have a great day!!!

Kageyama was staring. At him.  
Seriously, as if the already socially inept setter couldn't behave more awkwardly he was now staring at him.  
Kei arched an eyebrow at his oblivious teammate of 3 years, trying to let the other know that he could see him staring. But Kageyama only scowled harder and did not look away.  
Kei rolled his eyes and decided to ignore him. It shouldn't be that hard.  
Except suddenly Kageyama was everywhere.  
If he sat down to rest during practice and take a drink from his water bottle Kageyama sat next to him.  
If he and Yamaguchi were eating lunch then Kageyama, and by extension Hinata, joined them.  
He waited for him outside classes, he walked with him to his home and Kei had just about had enough. He didn't know if it was a crush as Yamaguchi suggested, an obsession as Yachi said or a hatred as Hinata growled but Kei was tired of having his personal space invaded by someone who didn't even pretend to act as if he liked him. Because if he was being honest Kageyama's attitude towards him hadn't changed, just his proximity and the amount of time he spent with him.  
Kei had tried to reasonably question him, and received silence. He had tried near violent anger and received stoic silence. Nothing Kei did or said seemed to change Kageyama's new found fascination with him.  
Kei sighed inwardly.  
Today he and Kageyama were assigned to clean up duties in the gym and the usual, silent Kageyama was efficiently breaking down the net when someone appeared in the gym entryway near where Kei was sweeping.  
Kei could have sworn the man must have either materialized out thin air, was a stealth ninja or he was distracted by one moody, black haired stalker.  
"Excuse me."  
Kei nearly jumped out of his skin.  
"Eh. Can I help you?" Kei peered into the doorway where a shadowed figure of an adult male stood hesitantly.  
"Oh. Pardon me. I think I'm lost. I was hoping I could ask for some assistance with directions."  
Kei opened his mouth to answer the overly polite man but felt more than saw Kageyama fly past him. There was no other way the setter could have moved that fast. He had flown. He had to have flown.  
Kageyama had been on the other side of the court and now in less time than it had taken Kei to open his mouth he stood between Kei and the doorway.  
"Brave." Kageyama said to the stranger. His voice was calm. Yet it sent chills up Kei's spine and a seed of doubt appeared in his stomach, blooming quickly into fear as a heavy energy seem to emanate from Kageyama, growing in intensity the longer that Kageyama faced the stranger.  
The thing in the doorway laughed.  
There was no way that it was human.  
Not with the sound it made, almost metallic, grating, like knives being sharpened. It made Kei's knees freeze and his blood run cold with a paralyzing fear. The kind he'd only felt before in dreams, when he had wanted to scream and couldn't. Except this was worse because as the thing in the doorway laughed he swore he saw it's teeth flash, blade like metal, every single tooth a knife in an elongated, gaunt, leathery face. With no eyes. Just hollowed nothingness in sockets where eyes should be.  
"You can't protect him forevaaaah" the thing hissed the last word at Kageyama who had taken a step forward.  
"Watch me." Kageyama countered, still calm, his energy still impossibly growing.  
The thing hesitated but caught sight of Kei and his frozen fear.  
"He's marked. He's free. And now that we've found him we WILL take him back."  
Back? Back where?  
Kageyama snapped his fingers and the thing burst into dust.  
Before Kei could even begin to process another thing just appeared in the doorway. Again on initial glance it appeared human. Until it spoke.  
"Tsskk." It tutted, metal sliding on metal. "Temper, temper."  
"Really brave if they're sending you already." Kageyama's voice was still calm but his aura was either growing so dense with intensity that Kei could see it or he was actually dreaming and things were just getting more weirdly dreamlike.  
"He's one of ours. You know that. You'll never be able to trust him or you would have bound him already." The thing paused to inspect it's stick like leathery hands. Kageyama remained silent, his aura had now completely engulfed a still frozen Kei. It was not calming or scarier than everything else happening. It made Kei feel itchy, uncomfortable, uncertain. And fearless.  
He took a breath, felt the fear be replaced by anger and a bloodthirst to fight and he joined Kageyama at his side. Nobody was taking him anywhere.  
The thing in the doorway stepped back, hissing.  
"You have bewitched himmmmm."  
"As if." Kageyama was still weirdly calm and Kei realized he wanted him pissed off. Since he knew what was going on he should be more proactively protecting him. Not just stalking him and chatting up leatherfaces.  
Why hadn't he snapped his fingers at this nightmare too?  
"Hurry up and get rid of this one too King." Kei frowned at Kageyama who returned the frown and added an exasperated sigh.  
"This one's stronger. I'd have to touch him to fight him."  
The thing laughed and Kei glared at it before looking back to Kageyama.  
"I mean it's gross, but kill it." The laughter stopped, Kei could feel the thing staring at him.  
"What did you do to himmmm?"  
"Nothing, he's just naturally salty." Kageyama looked...amused at their enemy?  
Kei did not see the humor in the situation.  
"Oi! Stop flirting with the monster and do something about it."  
"You've poisoned himmmmm. You've bound him already and are hiding it somehowwww!"  
Kageyama sighed. Kei shook his head at the inaction.  
"I could bind with you and you could kill them whenever you wanted, you'd never have to wait on me to do it. I wouldn't have to be so close all the time?" Kageyama was looking at him, searching Kei's face.  
Kei hesitated. For some reason he didn't hesitate at whatever binding with Kageyama meant. The setter had clearly been protecting him recently, had trusted him enough to make the offer to bind despite what those things said.  
"You'd abandon me just because I could fight on my own?" The thing in the doorway was hissing with uncontrolled bursts of short breaths but both volleyball players ignored it.  
"You didn't seem to like me being around you so much. Besides, we'd be able to tell where the other was and if they were ok without actually seeing each other. I'd be around if you needed."  
"Then why didn't you do this binding before now? Are you worried like those things said? Am I untrustworthy?"  
Kageyama held his gaze. "You deserved to make your own choice. The binding is forever. As in this lifetime and every lifetime after. We would always be connected, we would always feel the need to protect each other." Kageyama glanced at the thing in the entryway. "If I had tried to explain this before you saw this would you have believed me?"  
Kei considered Kageyama's words.  
"Does us being bound mean romantically bound too?" Kageyama looked at Kei with surprise and confusion, the thing in the doorway was laughing again, grating on Kei's nerves and he glared at it.  
"You think that shadow will ever care for you? You don't understand its darkness, it's just a killer. You belong with usssss."  
"Yes, it can be." Kageyama said simply. He had not looked at the thing so Kei assumed he was answering his question. He was looking at Kei candidly and Kei was satisfied with what he saw in those blue eyes.  
All hesitation was gone.  
"Ok. Let's do it then."


	2. Malady

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tap tap on the glassy pane  
> Go there now or stay the same  
> Nails done spear a lonely night  
> Take you there and feed the blight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a dream about this so I decided that I will be expanding on this work. Beware that any romance will take a back seat to the fiction. That said, I love this ship sooooo....

"Really?" Kageyama questioned Kei's ready acceptance of the binding.  
"Did I stutter King?"  
He looked at Kei once more, his familiar scowl settling back on his face and shrugged.  
"Nooooossss" the thing's voice seemed to be decreasing in intensity as it acknowledged their decision.  
"I guess I should get rid of that first." Kageyama seemed to be sizing up his opponent. Kei wasn't worried. He had seen him remove one of them with a finger snap.  
"What is it?" Kei asked, almost not sure he wanted an answer.  
"There are six other realms other than this one. He comes from the same realm as you, he's also a Salcha. You and I have substance in any realm, but that is unusual.The first Salcha we saw was mostly dust, a messenger, barely able to sustain a body outside of its own realm. This moron is a a couple steps above him but still mostly dust."  
"I am a fourth division upper markmannnn you shadow!" The thing hissed.  
"You're no man." Kei corrected, eyeing the knives for teeth creature that was supposed to be his kin.  
"Neither are youuuu." The thing had to gall to cackle.  
"That can't be true Plucky." Kageyama corrected and Kei felt some relief.  
"Not my naaaammeee." The thing seemed more annoyed at the nickname than the correction.  
"You have your information. Leave." Kageyama turned away from the leatherface and walked back to the net.  
Kei and Plucky Leatherface looked at the retreating Kageyama with equal parts confusion, annoyance and admiration.  
"I caan't leaave without himmmss."  
Kageyama looked up from his struggle with picking up the tangled net where he must have dropped it quickly.   
"You want me to kill you instead?" He offered.  
"Nooos you shadow! But I can't goooo back without himmmm."  
"Your sure death or you go back, get tortured a little and pass along useful information about us being bound. Your choice." Kageyama didn't even turn around.  
The thing Kei had no intention of turning his back to just vanished. No sound or motion to indicate it was leaving, it just wasn't there anymore.  
Kei turned to Kageyama.  
"I can't figure out if you are somehow a scary asshole or if you're stupid but why did you just let him leave? And why take your eyes off him?"  
Kageyama was dragging the net again and looked annoyed.  
"Care to help?" Kei walked over and took some of the weight.  
"Unless they are strong enough to have substance in another realm they can't go into an enclosure, we are safe once we are inside. But in his case I know Plucky, we've had some run ins in the past and he's weak but can be useful."  
Kei eyed the setter.   
"How is he one of my kind? I'm human right? You are too?"  
"We all have bottom feeders where we're from, don't worry about it, at least yours talk, mine just hide in shadows like cowards."  
Kei noticed he hadn't confirmed they were human.   
"Is that why he kept calling you a shadow."  
"Yes. Most other realms look down on mine, we don't have the best reputation. It's supposed to be an insult." He shrugged. Still typical Kageyama.  
"So are we humans?"  
Kageyama stopped.  
"We are of man but we are not humans. No."  
"What? What does that even mean?"  
Kageyama scowled.  
"Help me finish cleaning up and we'll get to all that."  
"Seriously?"  
"Yes. Its easier to show you than to keep explaining. You're so clueless!"  
"Well excuse me if I wasn't aware I wasn't a human before today."  
Kageyama shot him a look.  
"You knew. You knew you were different somehow. Deep down, you knew."  
Kei didn't respond. Couldn't   
He'd known.


	3. Royalty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Faster, faster  
> Take the light  
> Give the air   
> Blade the night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Need to edit these chapters, will get to them eventually.

They finished cleaning up, changed and Kei, who had sped through changing his clothes, was waiting impatiently for a slower than usual Kageyama.  
"You're dragging your feet." Kei squinted at him through his glasses. "You don't want to do this binding do you?"  
Kageyama sighed. Kei thought the past couple hours must have been the most he had heard him sigh in the entire time he had know him.   
"I'm not worried about me. I'm worried that you don't really know what you're agreeing to."  
Kei quirked an eyebrow.   
"Bound to each other, you said it meant we will be connected forever. I'll always know where you are, you'll always know where I am and we will always feel the need to protect each other? Did I miss anything?"  
Kei was aware that he had skipped over something but he wasn't going to bring it up again. It was as close to a confession as he'd ever given and Kageyama had looked surprised, not happy.  
Kageyama held out a steady hand and Kei took it, tentatively. Then they were somewhere else.   
The familiar club room had been replaced by impossibly high ceilings, soaring archways and a maze of grey hallways.   
"Glazar, my realm of the shadows." Kageyama still held his hand and Kei was thankful because he felt the need to grab Kageyama and hold on for dear life. Not because of a silly high school crush but because they were definitely not on Earth anymore.   
The air was heavier, itchier, similar to the feeling Kageyama had given off in waves earlier. It made him feel on edge, different, yet was also bolstering.  
"Is this where you live?" Kei asked, he was never letting go of his death grip on Kageyama's hand.  
Kageyama's lips quirked. "No, I live about twenty minutes from you. This is the seat of the Glazar empire though. If their royalty still existed this is where they would have resided. Now the realm is like the wild. No ruler and no stable system, it's not a nice place to live."  
Kei looked around in alarm.   
"Don't worry only those of royal blood can enter here. We're mostly safe."  
"Mostly." Kei allowed himself to be led down confusing halls that seemed unchanging, one large open room looking like another. "Wait, are you of royal blood?"  
"We both are. It's why we can also form a bond. I'm probably some bastard from some low branch royalty but you are special."   
They had stopped in front of two closed doors, so tall they dwarfed the relatively tall players making them look like toddlers.   
Kageyama looked down at their hands that Kei still kept tightly connected and shook his head.   
"You can let-"  
"No."  
Kageyama frowned at him looked at their hands again and sighed.  
"Hold my shoulder or waist then. I need my hands."   
Kei considered his options. Shoulder seemed not as sturdy, more likely to be loosed in a free fall between realms. He didn't let go of Kageyama's hand but stood to his other side and wrapped an arm around the setter's waist, earning him an even deeper frown and clear discomfort by Kageyama.   
"Care to dance King?" Kei smirked, holding Kageyama's hand at the appropriate dancing height before finally letting it go.  
"You really thought you were human?" Kageyama asked dully and he placed both hands on either side of the door handles.   
Blood sprang from both hands, a thin trickle that seemed to come alive in the heavy air as a thin streak lengthened along previously invisible designs on the grey door.   
Kageyama moved his hands away and the blood continued to thin, continued to mark until an intricate pattern of swirls was revealed and the doors swung noislessly open.  
Kei tightened his grip on Kageyama's waist but he didn't say anything, just followed him into the large grey room.  
This one held a small dagger on a short pedestal, nothing else.  
"Normally being bound is just an exchange of blood but Plucky and the rest of your people don't seem to really understand why you're so different so I'm not going to take any chances. We will bind as royalty." Kei was confused so Kageyama explained.  
"In the event that you are more than just a bastard child of a low ranked royalty like me, then our bases will be covered. High royalty can only bind with one of the seven blades of Imbar. And before you ask I think Imbar was just some magic they used, when magic existed, that made the bond stronger. That way they could make treaties and stuff through bindings."  
"You know what a treaty is?" Kei was not actually impressed with this considering the events of today but he needed to distract himself from what he was about to do and what the consequences may be and from how right it felt to hold onto Kageyama's waist.


	4. Bound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So slide over here  
> And give me a moment  
> Your moves are so raw  
> I've got to let you know  
> I've got to let you know  
> You're one of my kind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!

Kageyama pressed his palms together, the wounds he had gotten from the door already mostly closed.  
"Aren't you just going to cut yourself again though?" Kei asked.  
"You need to do it. With the blade."  
"Oh." Kei looked at the plain dagger. "Probably better if you do it first King."  
Kageyama grinned at him, clearly amused and Kei almost smiled back. Almost.  
With his usual aplomb the setter grabbed the smooth, wooden hilt and turned in Kei's hold to reach for his hand.  
"Are you sure?"  
"I mean yes. Although I have some questions."  
Kageyama looked up, waiting, holding Kei's hand in one of his, the blade in the other. It was a very different reality to the times Kei had dared to imagine them holding each other.  
"What is being marked and why is it a bad thing?"  
"It's not really a bad thing I guess. You're marked if you are royalty, if you're strong. Normally this shows up when you're born. For some reason yours only showed up a few weeks ago which is when I had to start looking out for you." Kageyama pressed a thumb at the base of Kei's thumb and an uneven round fingerprint sized discoloration appeared on Kei's palm.  
He vaguely remembered it had appeared in practice and everyone had thought he had a hematoma. It had disappeared the next morning though.  
"The mark lets you bind to your other royal clansmen or to any royalty of other realms. It's a sharing of power of sorts and without being bound in this lifetime you left yourself open to being bound from anyone that wanted more power."  
Kei looked steadily into clear, blue eyes.  
"Is that why you're doing it? To get more power?"  
Kageyama laughed, low and husky, the reverberations doing weird things to Kei's insides, making him very aware again of their positions at the moment.  
"Neither of us need more power. We are both as stable as it gets. Over many lifetimes we would have already formed bonds. Yours showing so late is strange enough that you would have probably ended up bound by someone you don't want though. The timing of your mark is unusual enough that the wrong kinds would have gotten interested." Kageyama brushed his thumb against the mark and Kei had to resist the urge to curl his fingers in. "I was bound to my grandfather when I was born in this lifetime, I share his power even in his death. The only reason we can be bound now is because he's died in this lifetime already."  
Kei looked concerned.  
"What?" Kageyama questioned, with surprising patience.  
"So it doesn't have to be an ...er..emotional or ...er ...romantic bond?"  
"It can be. Depends on your intention when you cut."  
Kei raised an eyebrow. Kageyama shrugged.  
"I was just born when I was bound in this lifetime, I don't think I had any intention other than surviving at that point when they held my hand and made me cut my grandfather. But in theory the intention behind the binding is sealed in it."  
"So how often can you be bound?"  
"With one living royalty per lifetime and infinitely with every lifetime."  
Kei frowned.  
"So we might have random people already roaming around that we are bound to?"  
"Probably not people and probably in different realms. But yes. It's harder than you think to meet them though. Lifespans differ, realms differ. "  
"You said we'd know where the other person is though."  
"Ummmm. Mostly."  
"Mostly?"  
"Without looking in your pockets do you know where your phone is? It's a bit like that."  
Kei looked at Kageyama's hand that still held his marked hand.  
"Why are you doing this then?"  
What did Kageyama gain from binding with him?  
"This way I won't have to keep hounding you all the time and you'll stop giving me salty looks." Kageyama scowled at him as if this was the most obvious thing.  
Kei sighed inwardly. His taste was sometimes suspect whenever the setter was stubborn or weird or cranky but in the face of Kageyama's certainty that there was no other option than protecting Kei...well, how did one resist that?  
"Ok. I'm ready." Kei said firmly.  
Kageyama frowned at him, hesitating.  
"Scared King?"  
Kageyama scowled, quickly pressed the blade to Kei's mark, and then turned it around to hold the hilt out to Kei who took it. He pressed his thumb on the small white scar at the base of his own thumb. Kageyama's mark appeared and he held his hand out to the knife Kei held.  
Kei took a breath and broke the skin carefully, feeling some nausea and a little light headedness as Kageyama began to bleed. Funny, he had been fine when he had been cut.  
Kageyama took the blade and replaced it and grabbed Kei's hands, fingers interlocked, cut touching cut as their red life-force spread out between their palms.  
It wasn't until the blood ran down to their wrist that Kei passed out.


	5. 5 Flight of the stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I go where you go. Go through Armageddon I got you. Theres no goodbyes only us. So I will follow.  
> Hold you close standing on the edge of no tomorrow. Still deep in us, get that rush. So I still follow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listening to music-easy to guess what music- and both writing and posting while drinking. Enjoy?

It was the smell of blood that woke him. The metallic scent lingered in the air and the iron taste in his mouth made him nauseous. He opened his eyes slowly, cautiously, feeling pain burst through just about every part of his body as more of his senses awakened. His body was on fire. God he hurt.  
Kageyama lay next to him, their foreheads almost touching. He took a deliberate breath, smelling the blood from Kageyama as well and taking in the bruises under those fanned ebony lashes. A wide smear of blood had matted the dark hair and dried on Kageyama's temple and ear after it had leaked from somewhere on his head. Tsukishima fought the fear curling his stomach and some instinct in him told him Kageyama was alive, and he believed it.  
Sore muscles screamed as he pulled away, and he gritted his teeth at the unpleasant sensation of skin stretching where his wounds had clotted over. He groaned, his pain was intolerable.  
Kageyama's eyes fluttered open at the noise and blue eyes slated almost instantly to grey with pain as they met Tsukishima's dulled golden ones. Tsukishima saw him register his presence and then Kageyama moaned too as he attempted to move.  
Tsukishima continued slowly sitting up, ignoring the stinging sensation of at least two reopened cuts beginning to bleed again. As Kageyama did the same the scent of blood grew stronger, heavy in the air that was already flooded with its odor.   
They were somehow in Tsukishima's bedroom. The last thing he had remembered was their binding in that world of grey.   
The room was destroyed. Every piece of furniture was broken, the walls were useless, peppered indisciminately by large and small holes, broken plaster jutted out from the gaps baring wires and emitting stifling dust that buoyed motes into the air. The falling ceiling tiles hung down precariously and the bed they lay on was cracked in two, now slanted inwards.  
"Ahh", Tsukishima almost sobbed as he grabbed his neck, palpating an area that hurt so badly he was having trouble breathing. The skin was broken, uneven but wide and semi circular. Almost like bite marks, almost as if a leatherface had bitten him. Except it couldn't be bite marks. He and Kageyama had done the binding thing, he was supposed to be stronger and protected.  
He instinctively looked over at Kageyama who was taking in the damage to the room, his shoulders hunched in pain. He had mirroring bites on his neck as well. Something or things had definitely tried to rip them to shreds.  
Tsukishima fought the agonizing pain and tried to focus on the rest of his body. He looked down, he was sticky but mostly his shredded clothes had hardened onto his skin from the blood that had drenched him. He was compelled to check Kageyama again. The setter was still a step behind him in awareness, and he was now assessing his own neck. Tsukishima noted Kageyama had a similar look, dark fluid covered clothes. But his chest was exposed, bared by the few, ineffective pieces of his shirt that was left. 

"What-?" Tsukishima whispered, stopping as his voice sounded so unusual, raw and low like he had been screaming. His throat was dry and painful.  
Kageyama looked startled at the abbreviated question that broke the silence.  
"Ugh." Tsukishima moaned, closing his eyes as another wave of pain tore at his neck.  
"You okay?" Kageyama asked huskily, his own pain also apparent in his voice.  
Tsukishima looked down at his chest, trying to see if he also had slashes to his ribs, to see if he also looked like something had tried to tear out his heart. It was there. He couldn't quite see all of it but enough that he was certain it matched Kageyama. He was not ok. None of this was ok.  
Warm hands held the top of his arms gently, running down them almost clinically. Kageyama was checking him for severe injuries but wherever he touched felt better. Tsukishima opened his eyes and Kageyama exhaled in relief. Tsukishima hadn't realized he'd closed his eyes, his body half bent over as if trying to refuse reality.  
"Kageyama?" Tsukishima caught his concentrated gaze.  
"Where hurts?" Kageyama questioned, uncharacteristic worry in his voice.  
"We bonded so what happened?" Tsukishima needed to know.  
Kageyama's grip on his arms tightened and Tsukishima didn't mind. No butterflies or anxiety, the touch was reassuring and easing in a reality that was absurd. He exhaled a shaky sigh. That easy acceptance to his touch only added to his growing uncertainty. Their bond was supposed to make them stronger, how had they gotten like this?  
Still dazed he instinctively bent forward and gently brushed Kageyama's neck at the edge of a larger wound. No normal human would have survived a cut like that though. Maybe this result was them protected.   
Kageyama jerked backwards his mouth open, brows furrowed, only to swallow the angry complaint as his pain also eased at the touch. Tsukishima could tell. In some dull part of himself he could feel Kageyama's pain and had just felt part of it recede.  
Kageyama's face flashed confusion but Tsukishima realized that emotion also registered dully within him.   
He didn't remember this being part of the binding deal. But the emotions were clear, muted but distinct from his own. Was it part of them now being wired to protect each other at all cost? Because when he looked at Kageyama in this state it was hard to focus on anything else other than the need to protect him, even through his own pain.  
Tsukishima growled low and pulled Kageyama back closer, brushing his neck again, even more gently. Kageyama held himself stiffly but allowed Tsukishima to finish. He didn't stop until the one wound closed, became invisible, faded into the skin like a fable brought to life. Tsukishima wanted to cry, scream, punch something. This crap was impossible, a freaking nightmare. This did not happen.  
He leant back, his eyes on Kageyama's now clearer, angry ones. Ah. So were those emotios and urges his own or the setter's?  
"Your turn." Tsukishima tilted his head, offering his neck. He needed to see if Kageyama had the ability to heal too. He had touched his own neck and nothing happened so maybe they could only heal each other.   
Kageyama froze and Tsukishima watched the emotions chase across his face while he felt it in his being. Shock, fear, doubt, disbelief and a painful few seconds later, reluctant acceptance and regret. Then determination and resolve.  
Still, an apology was in his eyes and in the gentle brush of his fingers that erased that branding pain in Tsukishima's neck. Kageyama's even breath was calming as he worked, releasing Tsukishima's tension that he had been unaware he held. His hands unfisted and he rested his head heavily on Kageyama's shoulder, letting the other support him.   
His eyes were so dry, they ached with unshed tears but he couldn't seem to cry. And he really seemed to want to cry. It was weird. He never cried.  
"Let's get cleaned up and then talk." Tsukishima said, surprised at the sadness in his voice. It really didn't sound like himself at all.  
Kageyama nodded, lifting off his nose that he had buried into Tsukishima's neck. They were both a mess.  
He grimaced as he stood and reached a hand to help Tsukishima up. God what the hell had they been through and how were they alive?  
Tsukishima followed numbly as Kageyama led him by the hand into his own bathroom. He leant him on the cool tiled wall and started the shower, his scowl fierce as each movement was clearly painful.  
When the water was warm he pulled Tsukishima by the hand again and they helped each other into the tub.   
Tsukishima hissed at the pain when the drops hit his wounds and hardened clothing that had stuck to their skin. They stood unmoving, their heads on each other's shoulders purely for physical support as the water browned and then turned red at their feet. When it ran pink Tsukishima lifted his head and began attempting to remove Kageyama's clothes. It was just easier and safer for them to remove it from each other since they couldn't see the extent of their own wounds. It took some time and, despite their best attempts, it took a lot of pain.   
After they had used touch to heal the bigger wounds Tsukishima grabbed a soft wash rag, and began carefully cleaning Kageyama's chest, awed as the smaller cuts closed easily with this touch. Kageyama didn't flinch, just stood and let Tsukishima gently wipe away blood and injuries.   
Tsukishima lingered on a larger wound he uncovered on Kageyama's lower chest, a finger running over the jagged edges resulting in it pulling into an uneven scar over what was previously pristine skin. Kageyama's responding growl at the discomfort and then at the ease in discomfort was just a faint rumble and Tsukishima replied with a pleased hum of his own and continued cleaning him. The better Kageyama felt, the better he felt.   
Besides.  
It was his chest.   
He easily claimed the possessive finality in any thought about Kageyama's body. Didn't question it or doubt it.   
When they finished washing each other they carefully towel dried and reinspected each other for missed wounds. Neither had any awkwardness with their nakedness. Only a day earlier they would never have dared stand this close much less do so while unclothed.

A presence was nearing, steadily approaching his house and Tsukishima acknowledged it with the hairs on the back of his neck lifting and his teeth baring.  
"Whoa. It's ok." Kageyama stepped closer to him to get his attention. But the urge to protect the other from that unknown was strong and the light above the sink flickered, flared and then went out with a pop, a small plume of smoke trailing upwards to the ceiling.  
"What the hell?" Kageyama looked at Tsukishima in disbelief.   
Tsukishima did not want to explain at the moment. Didn't think he could anyhow. Also the presence was in the house and he stepped in front of Kageyama, extending to his full height and facing the door.  
Kageyama dropped a heavy head onto his back, distracting him enough that he reached back an arm to steady him as Kageyama seemed too tired to move. He could feel just how tired he was and he was definitely more worn that him. He'd had more wounds too.   
"It's your brother you weirdo." His exhausted movements and amused words brought Tsukishima back to his new reality.   
"How do you know that for sure?" Tsukishima questioned, feeling slightly embarrassed at his overreaction and wanting to be certain there was no threat before he took down his guard.  
"I can sense it's him, can't you?"  
Tsukishima took several deliberate sniffs, as if Kageyama had smelled and not sensed his brother, mostly smelling acrid burnt wiring, soap, blood and debris. And Kageyama?  
"No."  
"Hmmm, maybe you get to blow out light bulbs and I get to sense people."   
"We need to get dressed." Tsukishima shrugged his shoulders until Kageyama lifted his head off of his back.  
"Are we going to talk to him about this?" They had walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom where Tsukishima was looking through his mostly intact closet for clothes that would fit Kageyama.  
"I think so. Not like I could hide my room." Tsukishima mumbled, distracted with his search. " Wait. Your family, wont they be wondering where you are?" He had turned around quickly, holding onto the only closet door that remained, one hinge having survived.  
"Out of town. I'll still send a text though." Kageyama took the clothes he was handed and dressed among the disarray of papers, books, chair legs and paraphernalia that had once decorated the room. Finding his phone was going to be another problem.  
Tsukishima dressed in similar sweatpants and a sweatshirt.   
He turned to look at Kageyama, hair still damp, all the bruises that had been marring his face were gone, wearing his old clothes.   
He was beautiful, he had always thought he was. Tsukishima stepped to him and brushed his hair back, reassuring himself that his ear and head had no wounds anymore and without thinking twice brushed his lips briefly against Kageyama's too, noting the surprise he felt from him.   
He felt the easing pain from Kageyama's now healed split lip and finally knew all Kageyama's wounds were healed.  
They shared a bemused look, Kageyama scowling, Tsukishima outwardly calm. Except Tsukishima acknowledged   
the same encompassing warm fondness that he felt sent back to him over their connection. It was one hell of a bond and it was very, very nice to know- his feelings were reciprocated.


	6. 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First year. It begins....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First year. It begins...

Sugawara had a particular set of skills. No, he couldn't smoothly drop kick an assailant or reload a gun without looking. Nor was he likely to be better at negotiating a ransom or doing high speed car chases. Although he has had his share of successfully performing threatening phone calls, he is the vice captain to a teenage boy's club after all. So he has skills, they were just a different set of particular skills.

Sugawara boldly eyed the two silent first years in front of him as they sat next to each other on the bench waiting on instructions, vibrating with an undercurrent of extremely aggressive energy that was both compelling yet disquieting. Like the lure of fire, powerful, dangerous and deceptively beautiful. He'd only told those of his own kind but he liked to call them his hidden dragons. His children of the dark, who lit their own fires from within. Unlike Hinata, Asahi or Nishinoya for example, whose light was like a reflection of the sun, blinding, intense, ever present. These two monsters hid in the shadows, moonlight mesmerizing and mountain lake deep. The quiet ones.

It suprisingly wasn't an uncomfortable silence. They didn't shy away from each other and didn't indicate any emotion other than the solidarity reinforced by their matching black and orange team colors. Both broad shouldered, tall, and carrying a sinewed strength under their lighter frames that clearly showed they were young athletes. 

They were impressively intimidating for their age by their appearances alone- without even considering the unapproachable looks on their faces. In fact regarding their personalities, well, that was a different intimidation level altogether, they both had terrible personalities. But in regards to each other their mutual antagonism had mellowed on and off the court in just the few months they had been on the team. Not that they still didn't growl and snap at each other like the pups in a litter that they were as first years. But it was definitely a change for the social better of the team that they attempted to communicate and at least tried to understand the other now.

Of course both were not overly vocal by nature, no one would accuse them of being chatty. Kageyama could be loud, terse, direct and socially tone deaf but these days any voice raising from him was rarely done out of the latent anger that had stemmed from his frustration of not being heard, of not being understood. Tsukishima still dispersed poisoned words with deadly accuracy and laced with self protective ennui. But as he had once again willingly climbed onto the scoured back of his not insignificant competitive spirit, those words were now honed sharper on specific and real targets that offended him versus the generalized angsty dislike for the world that he had widely targeted before. 

Originally Sugawara had decided that Hinata, along with the rest of the Karasuno team, were the catalyst for the changes. However training camps had definitely helped the two monsters too. And they were monsters. Not human. There's a reason they had been selected for specialized training camps out of everyone else on their team. 

Secretly Sugawara credited himself with part of their change. Especially Kageyama's change. By showing him that there could be another setter on the team who wasn't bitter. 

Still, this change with them was more than that. They were stronger together, their respective combined auras intimidating enough to dissuade even the boldest from approaching them when they were like this. Together.

In his more fanciful moments he could describe it as a wall of energy that surrounded them, encapsulated them, connected them.

The thought amused him and Sugawara smiled. Someone somewhere gasped in alarm but he chose not to hear it. Because, ahhh, the shipper life, it was something. He thoroughly enjoyed it, even if he didn't have much opportunities to enact his skills in shipping. Because that was truly one of his skill sets.

He was one of the touched, his beauty mark on his face shouting it to the world as if his royal gods couldn't help but announce that he was one of their own. Kiyoko was his haloed sister by this regard, but they were of different god parents. He'd never asked her specifically who they were, that would just be rude, even if he had been curious. His were nothing to hide, just two middle level gods who'd had fun in human bodies. He couldn't complain. They'd left him his mark that gave him access to the royal gods, all the worlds and planes, the abilities to see and manipulate the ley lines and of course his certain set of skills, matchmaking. Ok so it really wasn't that, not really romantic, more compatability matchmaking. A directional finger on soul threads so to speak. And his enjoyment from this ability was achieved by making the strongest compatability where otherwise there would be no connection. Not square pegs in round holes. No, bigger than that, combining negative to negative poles. The larger the propelling magnetism the bigger the challenge to force them together, to change the temperature around them so much that the energies combined rather than repelled. 

His smile widened and both monsters became aware of him. They betrayed instinctual concern in their amber and azure depths, the dragons uncoiling from their slumber at the sense of an unknown challenge, a protective awareness, a sense of unease. Sugawara savored it, they should be worried. The shadow king and the moonlight prince had no idea what was coming.


End file.
